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Player Spotlight: UCG BBoom Teemo

I made a pretty big fuss earlier in the year about who my picks were for the best AM and EMEA players for 2021 Runeterra as those are the regions that I primarily follow and that Riot gives me, someone in the west, the most information about. But during 2021 I also continuously re-casted and uploaded the Asia Seasonal tournaments since there was no official English coverage of them, only Korean and Japanese, leading me to have some strong opinions about the best players from that region as well. When it came time for the Ezry’s, I was reminded of how little information the west at large had access to regarding the Asia region. Hopefully, the merge into APAC will give more of a spotlight to the strong Asia players, but with the supposed cutting of Seasonal coverage, I feared we may be more in the dark than in previous years. Given this information, I want to shed what light I can on my personal big 3 from Asia.

DK, UCG Bboom Teemo, J01. Many of you will at the very least recognize J01 from this list, an international sensation known for his ability to effortlessly hit rank 1 on any server, usually with more 1-ofs than most people are comfortable with. DK and Bboom Teemo were ladder titans in their own right, but tended to stay on their own server while putting on dominating performances in the Asia Seasonal. Each of these 3 have a top 4 finish at a Seasonal, with J01 having a 2nd place coupled with his while Bboom and DK both managed to pick up wins (shoutout to Pisukaru for also having a 2nd and top 4). In fact, Asia by far had the most repeated top 4 players, making it pretty easy to identify who the top dogs were for anyone who was willing to look. But if I had to pick a #1, it would probably be Bboom Teemo.

Bboom’s Seasonal to win was Cosmic Creation - the TF/Fizz + Aphelios Seasonal for those of you who forgot. One of the most important aspects of that Seasonal, for those who may not remember, was Lee Sin. Going into the event I already held the opinion that Asia had some of the strongest Lee Sin players in the world and watching Bboom play through the Playoffs sold me on him perhaps being the best Lee player in Asia. Back then you had a little more agency in winning games that didn’t directly involve Lee Sin thanks to cards like The Fangs and Sparklefly that you could pillar on, and additional cards to help facilitate that (in Bboom Teemo’s case, Veiled Temple). In game 1 of the Grand Finals, Bboom was able to pilot their Lee Sin deck to victory against a turn 5 level 2 Twisted Fate without ever drawing Lee Sin. In the following Seasonal, Empires of the Ascended, I thought Bboom Teemo was going to easily become our first two-time champion, a title that still remains unclaimed to this day. But by some sort of divine intervention, it wasn’t meant to be, as Bboom lost game 3 of his top 4 match against DK to turn 6 Feel the Rush followed by a turn 7 Feel the Rush against Targon’s Peak. THAT is what it took to stop Bboom from winning a 2nd Seasonal - being the victim of the worst bad beat story in competitive Legends of Runeterra. 

I wish I had more time to go in-depth on Bboom and the other two in the big 3, but you’re not the only one who has access to limited information when it comes to Asia server LoR. I’d like to highlight more of these stories for you in the future, but only time will tell how feasible that really is. For now we take what we can get, and I hope you enjoyed this small peek into the east.

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